were granted for mining purposes (excepting precious metals) at a rent of 5s. an acre per annum. Under certain conditions any person or company could purchase the land at £3 per acre.
It was found that as the leasing system was popularised by liberal regulations, the revenue derived from the sale of Crown lands decreased. But Mr. Fraser, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, viewed this fact with equanimity, believing that if bona-fide settlement were obtained the general advantages more than counterbalanced the loss in revenue by sale. Yet he apprehended that under the liberal opportunities offered, there would be a scramble for the pick of the country, in which case the thrifty landholders would acquire large quantities of ground, and after complying with the necessary conditions, could hold the country locked up in their hands. The cost of locating the selections was considerable, and entailed great energy and expense on the Survey Department. Mr. Fraser estimated in 1876 that the accruing claims of pensioners, volunteers, and immigrants would nearly amount to 70,000 acres, which, with other claims, produced the large area of 200,000 acres of Crown lands pledged in the future.
The census of 1870 disclosed that there were 3,283 grants, representing 1,454,108½ acres, in the colony, and 15,160,310 acres held under lease from the Crown. In 1869 the sum of £8,412 was received from the sale of land, and in 1876 £8,460, but the revenue derived from licenses, leases, &c., was £15,077 in the former year, and £23,706 in the latter. The leases and licenses in 1878 represented 24,043,423 acres, and the area granted and sold 2,048,774 acres. The total revenue from lands in that year was £31,850.
Included in these new land laws were certain regulations designed to encourage immigration. The question, as old as the colony, of how to attract population still confronted Western Australians, and though their export trade was yearly growing, the percentage of voluntary immigration was very small. During and since the convict epoch the population had jumped from something over 5,000 to more than 20,000 persons, but, unfortunately, a considerable portion of the people was of the convict class, or was associated with convicts in some way. Industry would languish if dependence were placed on voluntary immigration and nothing else. Only a few isolated people had come to whom substantial attractions had not been held out. Inducements had been successfully offered by sister colonies.
For some years after the cessation of transportation people waited, seemingly in expectation that with the changed character of the colony a precious stream of new people would merge hither, but they waited in vain. The expansion of industries called for greater energy and power to keep them in progress, and as the influx of felonry had ceased more labour had to be obtained. It was also desired to attract people of small means, whose capital and bodily vigour were sure to be advantageous. In 1873 proposals were made to appropriate sums of money for the introduction of labourers. Emigration from Europe was at this time large, but America and the other colonies absorbed the whole stream. There were some colonists who insisted that to "import men and women to order" was a faulty principle, in that pauper immigration was valueless; unless a man came of his own free will, prepared to buckle to and take the consequences of his own act, he was said to be useless. During the 1874 session of the Legislative Council the question was debated with some earnestness, and a vote of £10,000 was passed for immigration purposes, £1,000 of which was to be used in introducing Chinese or Javanese coolies. The Government immediately sent to England, and in May, 1875, the Lady Elizabeth reached Fremantle with 147 Government and Nominated immigrants on board; in August the Daylight arrived with 184. In that year the sum of £1,690 was expended in this way; in 1876, £9,991 and in 1877, £7,000. The total immigration in 1875 numbered 262 males and 156 females; in 1876, 515 males and 212 females. These people comprised mechanics, agricultural labourers, shepherds, grooms, gardeners, domestic servants, &c.
To attract and hold immigrants the Government offered special inducements in the land regulations, and in this policy they were heartily supported by councillors. In 1875 it was proclaimed that each adult of the labouring class, introduced wholly or partially at the expense of the Imperial or Colonial Government, could, after two years' residence, select a lot not exceeding fifty acres from any unimproved Crown lands open to selection, and each immigrant between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one could select twenty-five acres, provided that the quantity of land so selected did not exceed 150 acres in any one family. The grants were allotted under occupation certificates, which could be exchanged at the end of three years for grants in fee-simple on certain conditions of improvement.
But the difficulties were not ended when the people were landed and the Government had paid their passages and offered to present them with grants of land. In view of the wider popularity and more apparent progress of the eastern colonies, many of them left Western Australia within a year of their arrival. Such ingratitude naturally gave offence, and Governor Robinson, in his address to the Council in 1876, confessed that numbers of immigrants had come hither at Government expense merely as a means of proceeding eastwards. To prevent this, at his suggestion all future immigrants were required to enter into an agreement to remain in the colony for three years, failing which they must repay to the Government the full cost of their passages.
The Inquirer in January, 1876, largely blamed the settlers for this emigration. In a lengthy diatribe it first adverts to "the miserably unsocial relations which exist, in too many cases, between the settler and his men, and the thoroughly demoralised condition of the latter." There was no wonder that the rural labouring classes degenerated; they were herded together in huts, far from the ameliorating influences of civilisation, religious services, instruction, or even of family ties. Their own improvidence often completed their debasement: "Every few months of this half-savage kind of life it is their regular custom to leave service and hasten to the nearest publichouse to spend every penny of their wages in drink." Finally, the Inquirer asserted that property had its duties as well as its rights, that its duties were not all performed by the mere payment of wages, and that until the labouring classes were better treated they could not be expected to remain in the colony.
From January to July, 1877, nearly 200 immigrants were introduced under the new system, at a cost of £19 15s. per head. The expenditure during the year was £6,724. The standard of these people satisfied neither Government nor Councillors, and it was decided in 1878 to admit only nominated immigrants. The proposal was made to obtain Germans, and Chinese or coolie labour. A vote of £2,500 was passed for the former class, and £4,500 for the latter. Highly complimentary references were made by country members to the excellence of Chinese labour, but the town representatives deprecated such an introduction. The proposal was not allowed to pass without outside opposition. On 22nd July
